Forum Discussion

sznschng's avatar
sznschng
3 years ago
Solved

sims 3 device 0

this is a rant about my awful experience with ea support as well as my unsolved sims 3 issue. please help me i have tried everything to fix this. i have windows 11 pc, i get this message when ...
pc
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    3 years ago

    @sznschng  You're right that this error is likely related to your graphics card or driver, but I wanted to address other potential causes that could interfere with the driver first.  For example, an antivirus could block a program from using the GPU or driver in a certain way.  And yes, it's always worth repairing after changing antivirus settings or anything else that might interfere with the game's program files.

    Additionally, it's worth running Sims 3 as an admin again, if you haven't tried that since you first posted.  However, if you've set it to permanently run as admin, disable that setting and test again.  I've seen posts about other older games not opening because the EA App set them to run as admin, and disabling that setting has fixed the issue.  Point is, try both ways.

    If that doesn't or didn't help, the next step is to do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver.  Here's how;

    https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

    You can get a fresh copy of the newest driver from Nvidia:

    https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/199654/en-us/

    If that doesn't make a difference, you can try playing in a new admin Windows account.  This doesn't have anything to do with your graphics card or driver directly, but it does get around any possible permissions issues or other borked settings in your main account.  Make the new account local, as in, don't sign into Microsoft, and don't sync with any other services you normally use.  You won't need to reinstall anything; just see whether you can play, and let me know either way.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago

@sznschng  I know you already tried repairing.  I was asking you to repair the game again to undo any changes you've made to the game's program files, including the .sgr files.  It's always better to test with an unaltered game and only introduce changes after the game is stable.  So please run that repair, again, and let me know whether it helps.

If it doesn't, check whether Windows Defender's Controlled Folder Access is enabled, and if it is, either disable it or set exceptions for Sims 3 (TS3.exe and Sims3Launcher.exe, without the W, for an EA App or Origin install) as well as the EA App itself.  This guide is for Sims 4, but the concept is the same:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/03/windows-10-defender-controlled-folder-access.html

sznschng's avatar
sznschng
3 years ago

Hi! 🙂

yes, before i did all the things in my previous message i did run the repair again, and i ran another one now just in case, still nothing.

Windows Defender's Controlled Folder Access was off when i checked now.

Thank you for that link it was very clear and easy to follow, i did all those steps (as shown in attatched screenshot) then opened the game again and still got the error message. should i have tried repairing again after setting it as an exception?

obviously the error message has to do with my graphics card because it is new, but i am really losing hope because i thought maybe the problem wasnt with my graphics card (because ive tried to mess with the nvidia driver so much) so im not sure what to do now

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @sznschng  You're right that this error is likely related to your graphics card or driver, but I wanted to address other potential causes that could interfere with the driver first.  For example, an antivirus could block a program from using the GPU or driver in a certain way.  And yes, it's always worth repairing after changing antivirus settings or anything else that might interfere with the game's program files.

    Additionally, it's worth running Sims 3 as an admin again, if you haven't tried that since you first posted.  However, if you've set it to permanently run as admin, disable that setting and test again.  I've seen posts about other older games not opening because the EA App set them to run as admin, and disabling that setting has fixed the issue.  Point is, try both ways.

    If that doesn't or didn't help, the next step is to do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver.  Here's how;

    https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

    You can get a fresh copy of the newest driver from Nvidia:

    https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/199654/en-us/

    If that doesn't make a difference, you can try playing in a new admin Windows account.  This doesn't have anything to do with your graphics card or driver directly, but it does get around any possible permissions issues or other borked settings in your main account.  Make the new account local, as in, don't sign into Microsoft, and don't sync with any other services you normally use.  You won't need to reinstall anything; just see whether you can play, and let me know either way.

    • sznschng's avatar
      sznschng
      3 years ago

      @puzzlezaddictHi, i have tried running it as admin, didnt work, repaired and tried again, didnt work. repaired and tried running w/o admin, didnt work. my game is not set to permanently run as admin.

      tried to uninstall and reinstall my driver again as you suggested ,did not work, still getting the error message. i made a whole new account on my pc and tried to launch sims 3 and got the same error message

      edit: oh my gosh.. im not sure how, but following this i realized i did not reinstall the correct driver, and once i did the game worked! thank you so much for recommending me to do it again! although i have a lot of trust issues with the sims games.. so for now i will leave this issue as solved!! i hope it doesnt come back with the error message again one day, thank you again!

      • puzzlezaddict's avatar
        puzzlezaddict
        Hero+
        3 years ago

        @sznschng  I'm so glad to hear it worked, and yes, installing the wrong graphics driver could easily perpetuate the issue.  At least now you've established that this is in fact a problem with the driver, so if you run into it again, you know where to start looking.

        Let me know if you have any more issues, and otherwise, enjoy your game.

About The Sims 3 Technical Issues

Get help with issues in The Sims 3 from fellow Simmers.83,240 PostsLatest Activity: 2 days ago